Regions of Influence

To increase the quality of your animation and the accuracy of the deformation effect, you can modify the regions of influence around the deformation chains. A region of influence is the zone around the deformer within which art will be influenced by the deformation. The deformer has the power to shape all art contained within the influence area on its own element or on its children elements.

Zones of influence are different depending on the deformer type and zone type you selected. Note that the Game Bone deformers do not support regions of influences. Game Bone deformers are set to Infinite and cannot be changed.

You can find the settings for the zones of influence in the Layer Properties of the Curve, Bone and Envelope nodes, as well as in the Rigging tool properties—see Deformation Toolbar.

There are four types of region of influence:

•

Zero: This creates no influence around the deformer.

•

Infinite: This is the default option. The influence goes all the way to the image boundaries or until it intersects with another zone of influence. When working on a cut-out puppet built on several element layers, the best choice is to keep the default Infinite option as the zone of influence type. In the following examples, the zones of influence are explained through deformation chains on a single bitmap image. It's also recommended to keep the regions of influence to Infinite when using Envelope deformers.

•

Elliptic: This creates a region of influence following the deformer. Its size is based on a radius value. When you set up the shape of your Elliptic zone of influence, you should be as accurate as possible and make sure that only the element you want to follow the deformation is included inside the zone.

•

Shaped: This creates a custom region of influence around the deformer that can be adjusted using control points and Bezier handles. When you set up the boundaries of your Shaped zone of influence, you should be as accurate as possible and make sure that only the elements that you want to follow the deformation are included inside the zone.

When you have an Elliptic zone of influence selected in the Node view, you can convert it to a Shaped zone using the Convert Elliptic Zone of Influence to Shape option.

To illustrate the zone of influence Fade Radius and its effect, the bitmap picture will be swapped with a grid pattern.

There is an area called the deformer Fade which surrounds the region of influence; this is the link between the strict boundaries of the zone of influence and the surrounding region. This area gradually stretches or squashes following the deformation. You can change the Fade Radius value to modify the size of this area and the exponent of the deformation fade effect.

If you built a custom deformation system from the Node Library view and are using a Deformation-Switch node, you can change the default behaviour so the fading effect is inside the zone of influence instead of outside. This is explained in this example.

NOTE: You can also prevent a child’s element from undergoing its parent deformation by connecting it through a kinematic output—see Assembling Pieces.

When the Symmetric Ellipse of Influence option is enabled, this field controls the Left and Right transversal radius values. When disabled, it controls the size of the left transversal radius. By default, this value is set to 2.

Transversal Influence Radius Right

When the Symmetric Ellipse of Influence option is enabled, this field becomes inactive. The Left Transversal radius value is automatically applied to the Right Transversal. When the Symmetric Ellipse of Influence option is disabled, it controls the size of the Right Transversal radius. By default, this value is set to 2.

Longitudinal Influence Radius Begin

When the Symmetric Ellipse of Influence option is enabled, this field becomes inactive. The End Longitudinal value is automatically applied to the Begin Longitudinal value. When the Symmetric Ellipse of Influence option is disabled, it controls the size of the Begin Longitudinal radius. By default, this value is set to 0.25.

Longitudinal Influence Radius End

When the Symmetric Ellipse of Influence option is enabled, this field controls both the Begin and End Longitudinal radius values. When this option is disabled, it controls the size of the End Longitudinal radius. By default, this value is set to 0.25.

Symmetric Ellipse Influence

Enabled by default. The shape of the ellipse will be symmetrical on both the transversal and longitudinal radii. In this case, use the Transversal Influence Radius Left field to set the transversal radius value and use the Longitudinal Influence Radius End field to set the longitudinal radius value. The two other fields will remain unused unless you disable the Symmetric Ellipse Influence option. In that case, you can set up different radius sizes for the four radii directions.

You can also modify the elliptic shape in the Camera view using the Rigging tool.

‣

If the Symmetric Ellipse of Influence option is enabled, one control point will be available in the Camera view. Drag this point in any direction to increase or decrease the size of the Zone. Dragging it left/right will modify both longitudinal radius sizes. Dragging it up/down will modify both transversal radius sizes.

‣

If the Symmetric Ellipse of Influence is disabled, two control points will be available in the Camera view. Drag the top-corner point left/right to modify the end longitudinal radius size and up/down to modify the left transversal radius size. Drag the bottom-corner control point left/right to modify the beginning longitudinal radius size and up/down to modify the right transversal radius size.

In the Node or Timeline view, select the deformation group or nodes containing the deformation chain you want to set the region of influence for—see Displaying the Deformation Controls.

In the Deformation toolbar, click the Show Selected Deformers and Hide All Others button to display the deformer of the selected piece.

If you selected the Shaped option in the Layer Properties window or in the Rigging tool properties, the zone of influence will be square. This square has control points on all four corners and each control point as two control levers. If you converted an Elliptic zone to a shape, the zone will have more control points and handles.

In the Layer Properties window, in the Region of Influence tab, set the Influence type to Shaped.

In the Node or Timeline view, select the deformation group or nodes containing the deformation chain you want to set the region of influence for—see Displaying the Deformation Controls.

In the Deformation toolbar, click the Show Selected Deformers and Hide All Others button to display the deformer of the selected piece.

In the Layer Properties window, under the Region of Influence section, adjust the Influence Fade Radius field to modify size of the fading area. The default value is 0.5.

If you built a custom node structure, using deformation nodes from previous versions of Harmony and are using a Deformation-Switch node, you can also set the fade radius there. In the Node view, select the Deformation-Switch node under the Deformation-Composite node in your deformation chain.

In the Layer Properties window, set the following options:

Parameter

Description

Influence Fade Exponent

Modify the exponent value or type the exact value in the field.

•

A value of 1 is similar to a linear curve.

•

A higher value will result in an ease-in type of curve.

•

A lower value will result in an ease-out type of curve.

Fade Inside Zones

By default this option is disabled, meaning that the Fade effect will occur outside the zone of influence. You can enable this option so the fade effect is inside the zone of influence.

The content reflects the features found in the latest Harmony 12.1 release. To download the latest upgrade, go to toonboom.com/members > My Downloads